246 LETTER FROM DR. G. BENNETT. [Nov. 25, 



nearly equal the joints in length, being little more than discs, and 

 . are somewhat less in diameter. They are striate, and from them 

 spring the branches. These branches are very numerous, diverging 

 in all directions subdichotomously, and making a tolerably thick 

 bush. They are much thinner than the main stem, and they become 

 gradually more slender upwards, the calcareous joints at the same 

 time becoming longer. Occasionally two of the ultimate branchlets 

 come into contact and are soldered together. Each branchlet bears 

 at its apex a ceil of a shape between campanulate and infundibuli- 

 form, the margin of which bears eight pairs of long, upright, spine- 

 like spicula. There are also sessile cells at the sides of the ultimate 

 branchlets, one at each interjoiut. All the cells are of a pale brown 

 colour. The pellicle covering the branchlets contains long spicula, 

 which are for the most part large and fusiform, whilst the smaller 

 ones are cylindrical, and all are brown and minutely tuberculated. 



A single example of this Coral was obtained from a fisherman at 

 Cama de Lobos, ftladeira, and it is now in the British Museum. Its 

 length, without the base, which is wanting, is 13 inches, and it is 

 7 inches across. The lower part of the main stem has a diameter of 

 three-tenths of an inch, and its calcareous joints are about three- 

 eighths of an inch in length. The branches are broken away from 

 this part of the stem ; but there are remains to show that some of 

 the interjoints bore four branches, others only one. A cell, with its 

 marginal spines, measures the fifth of an inch. 



This coral seems to be nearly related to Mopsea dichotoma ; but 

 M. Milne-Edwards gives the Indian Ocean (with a mark of doubt) 

 ias the habitat of that species. Strange to say, that writer, in his 

 work on Corals (' Histoire Naturelle des Coralhaires,' forming one 

 of the ' Nouvelles Suites a Buffon'), is altogether silent as to the cells 

 of Mopsea. Lamouroux says that the polypi (? cells) of Jf. dicho- 

 toma are mammiform on the higher, tuberculous on the middle, and 

 superficial on the lower branches. This would ill accord with the 

 Madeiran specimen. Little agreement can be made out between that 

 specimen and the figures of Esper, " Pflanzenthiere," Isis, pi. 5, 

 figs. 1-5. 



November 25, 1862. 

 E. Y/. H. Holdsworth, Esq., F.Z.S., in the Chair. 



The following extracts were read from a letter addressed to the 

 Secretary by Dr. G. Bennett, F.Z.S., dated Sydney. 



" For the last six months I have been making every eifort to pro- 

 cure specimens of the Didunculus, alive or dead. It has been re- 

 ported (which I cannot credit) that they are nearly extinct ; but if, 

 as has been mentioned, the Samoan Islanders keep them as pets, as 



